Bruins Notebook: Paille says he has no lingering symptoms

BOSTON — Daniel Paille says he had no symptoms from April 13, the day after he had jelly legs and needed help to leave the ice in the Bruins' final home game of the regular season.

DAN CAGEN

BOSTON — Daniel Paille says he had no symptoms from April 13, the day after he had jelly legs and needed help to leave the ice in the Bruins' final home game of the regular season.

Paille hit the back of his head on the ice after being checked by Buffalo's Jake McCabe. Although he and the team have been careful to not use the word 'concussion' publicly, it's believed Paille sustained his third such injury of the season on that play.

On Thursday, Paille played his first game since then, back in the lineup for Game 1 of the second-round series with the Canadiens at TD Garden less than three weeks later. Paille missed the final game of the regular season and all five games against the Red Wings in the first round.

"With three injuries, we had to take a lot more precautions, find a lot more answers, so we had to do that," Paille said Thursday after the Bruins' morning skate. "It was more patience than anything, but other than that, it was pretty solid."

After Paille's second concussion this season, suffered March 9 at Florida on a hit by the Panthers' Ed Jovanovski, Paille was back skating within several days and played six days later. Paille missed nearly three weeks in December with a concussion.

The medical staff was considerably more cautious this time. Paille began skating April 18 and was taking light contact by April 24. He didn't take full contact until Tuesday's practice.

Paille said that "certain issues" had to be figured out so that he could remove any nervousness from playing after multiple brain injuries.

"I believe right now that I've worked my way out of that with certain issues I did have," Paille said. "We've worked at it every day and got to meet a lot of people along the process. Myself, if I'm going out there nervous, I'm not going to be effective."

The 30-year-old didn't want to go into detail with those issues.

"It's kind of hard to explain," he said. "It's not a major, major issue, but it's enough to affect certain things in my game where it bothered me. It took three weeks to get this all cleared up and ready to go."

Jordan Caron came out of the lineup to allow Paille his reclaim his spot on the Bruins' Merlot line.

Brad Marchand did not participate in the Bruins' morning skate, but was in the lineup against Montreal. Coach Claude Julien said Marchand took his veteran's option to sit out the skate. Marchand skipped Tuesday's practice as well and had a hoarse voice when he met with the media Wednesday. Max Pacioretty also skipped the Canadiens' morning skate, but was good to go when the puck dropped.

Montreal coach Michel Therrien gave much respect to the Presidents' Trophy-winning Bruins in his pregame press conference. Therrien was asked if his team is embracing an underdog role against the No. 1 seed.

"We're playing against the best team. Underdog or not, the Boston Bruins are the best team in the league right now," Therrien said. "We understand that it's a huge challenge not only for us, but all the teams that play the Bruins this year."

Adversely, Julien has gone into lockdown mode with the media. The usually effusive coach was Belichick-esque Thursday morning, when three of his five responses come in at under 12 words.

Andrej Meszaros was a healthy scratch, while Chris Kelly (back) and Adam McQuaid (quad) remained out with injuries. Dennis Seidenberg (ACL) took part in morning skate but is still not taking contact.

Reggie Lemelin was the Bruins' honorary banner captain.

A special postseason edition of 'Behind The B' will air May 5 on NESN at 7 p.m.

Dan Cagen can be reached at 508-626-3848 or dcagen@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanCagen.